Even Though We're Sisters
by A New Username
Summary: Set in a world where the SAO incident never happened, Kirito is a strong-willed female, and she was a little too close with Suguha to let knowing the truth about her parents drive them apart. (AU, female Kirito, eventual femKiriSugu yuri/incest)
1. I: Like Mother Like Daughter

**Author's Note**

 **I know what many of my followers are thinking right now. "What the hell, Username?! I followed you to read Kiriko/Sinon and/or Kiriko/Argo, why are you posting a story of a pairing you've already made public that you don't even like?!"**

 **But in my defense, especially towards my readers who followed me for Kiriko/Sinon… I don't really like that pairing (or Sinon in general but that's another story) either. So this isn't really a big deviation from normal, you know?**

 **For those of you who came here specifically for the Kiriko/Suguha or aren't mentally flipping me off for pairing deviation… I present to you the warnings for this story that aren't already in the summary. Some of them are standard for me whilst others are unique to this fic.**

 **Kirito is female. Don't like, don't read. This is in the summary but I'm saying it again because it's really important.**

 **The main pairing (Kiriko/Suguha) is going to take a** _ **very long time**_ **to come to fruition. I mean, they're sisters, so it's incest in addition to yuri, and honestly, love between siblings really doesn't happen overnight. It's usually a much more gradual thing, and that's what I'm going for here.**

 **Some relationship dynamics in this story are just plain terrible. I don't mean poorly written, I mean that they're literally bad relationship dynamics. As in, the kind you generally want to avoid having. I'm doing that on purpose, but it's not something I often do like this, so if it's unrealistic, I'm sorry.**

 **I think that's it. If you don't mind all those things, then go ahead and read the story. Do temper your expectations a bit though for this chapter, it's basically just me setting up the story, which means I had to dump some info… well, I didn't absolutely have to, but it will sure make this AU more understandable for you, so don't complain too much.**

* * *

Even Though We're Sisters

Chapter One: Like Mother Like Daughter

* * *

For as far back as she could remember, Suguha Kirigaya had always been practically glued to her big sister. More so than she ever clung to even her mother. It didn't help that said mom almost never came home from work while they were awake starting when the younger sibling turned four, but even if she had been around more, Suguha believed she still would have stuck to her sister more.

There were a lot of qualities to admire in the older sibling, Kimiko. She easily became amazing at almost anything she tried. She was nearly always honest and straightforward, and at least when she was dealing with Suguha, she never got mad. When she wasn't mad, she was incredibly selfless and kind, often to a self-sacrificial extent. And as she got older, she grew to be stunningly beautiful as well.

However, all of those things developed after Suguha became attached to her. While each one of them admittedly only made them connect deeper in the end, none of them were the source of that connection. Sometimes the younger sibling wondered where the connection came from – they weren't twins, and in most ways, they weren't very similar, but they weren't polar opposites, either. But no matter how much she wondered about it, the bond was still there.

But because she was normally so honest, it was easy to tell when she was lying if you knew what to look for. And because she was so straightforward, it was easy to tell when she was suffering.

And unfortunately, moments of suffering seemed to be the only time when Kimiko wouldn't let anybody in through her rare yet impenetrable walls, no matter how close they normally were.

* * *

"Watch what you say a little more, auntie."

Upon first walking in through the front door of her own house at somewhere close to midnight, this was the greeting Kirigaya Midori got. Nothing said 'Welcome home!' quite like being immediately rudely ordered around by one's fifteen-year-old niece, who was raised as one's own daughter.

The mother and aunt, tired from work, let out a great sigh as she looked to the end of the wood-floored foyer and saw the very niece who just gave her orders, Kimiko. She wouldn't be able to go further into the house without getting past her. Talk about being blocked at the point of entry – her escape routes aside from straight up leaving again had been cut off, as usual. If she wanted to go to bed any time soon, she'd have to either push past or somehow talk the girl into moving. And she hated turning to force as a parenting method, which cut down her options by one.

"What are you even talking about?" Midori knew from the moment the words left her mouth that she was going to regret asking, but she didn't take it back. She'd had a hard day at work, so blowing off some steam through an argument would be good for her.

"On the phone, during the regular four o'clock call," Kimiko began recounting whatever had her upset, nearly glowering as she spoke. "When Sugu said I'm awesome at whatever I try, you said, and I quote, 'she gets it from her mother.'"

"So what? You do."

It was the truth. Before she got killed, the glossy black-haired teen's mother – Midori's sister – had been just as perfect as the teen herself. Never bad at anything, always the best at everything she put even a little effort into. She was smart, fast, strong, beautiful – the list went on and on. She always took up all their father's attention with how utterly amazing she was.

And Kimiko was growing up to be exactly like her in every way, so much so it was infuriating. Just when she was free of the one person she was always incredibly jealous of, fate gave her a carbon copy to raise herself. Life really was anything but fair.

"That may be, but that's not what I have a problem with," the teen dismissed, eyes smoldering with barely-restrained, ferocious anger. "Don't try to take credit for someone else. It makes your soul look unfathomably ugly to the people who catch it."

"Excuse you? You may have quoted me, but you clearly don't understand what I said," Midori countered, anger of her own beginning to build – at both her niece and at the whole situation. "I just said you got it from your mother. I never claimed to be that person."

"To everyone but the two of us, it's obvious that's exactly what you were trying to imply!" Kimiko shot back twice as burning hot without missing a beat. "We are literally the only two people in the world who know and remember that you're not my mom!"

The older woman would have brought up that clearly there were other people who knew – like the people she filed for Kimiko's adoption with – but the teen's comment about remembering it took care of that counter-argument in one fell swoop. The other people who did know about it either had no interest in holding onto that knowledge or were dead and therefore couldn't say anything. Speaking of which…

"I don't know why you're so mad about it. The call was on the home phone. With your grandpa dead, the only one around to hear anything I said was Suguha," the older woman, with fairly limited options, decided to dismiss the whole thing at once.

The fifteen-year-old beauty merely crossed her arms – a sign that she showed she knew she was winning the argument. "Call me crazy, but I like it when people don't tell or imply lies to my sister."

Of all the things Kimiko had said so far, this one was perhaps the most offensive. Not because she was calling Midori a liar – that, she'd long since gotten used to – but because of what she called Suguha, despite what the younger girl called her.

"Why is it that you call me 'auntie' now, but you call Suguha your sister, even though you know that's the wrong word?" said aunt asked, voice harsh and critical to mask the pain she felt inside.

"Because unlike with you, I can actually describe the bond Sugu and I have like that."

The words were very calm and calculated, yet also severe and as sharp as a razor blade. Midori knew she literally asked for them, but… even if it was not the first time she'd heard it and certainly wouldn't be the last, it didn't make it hurt any less.

And when this particular woman was hurt, she didn't cry or go off to be alone. Those options left her too vulnerable when dealing with a child as utterly relentless and merciless as Kimiko could be when she was angered. Instead of leaving herself open to further attacks, she defended herself by lashing out in turn.

"Wow, how nice for you two," she scoffed bitterly, turning around as if to leave. "I think I may just leave you alone to fend for yourselves and nurture that sisterly bond of yours."

"Was that supposed to scare me or something?" the teen retorted, seemingly unfazed by the action. The more she spoke, the louder her voice got. "Go ahead and do it! That's fine with me! Or have you forgotten that while you've been away at work all these years, I've basically raised your kid for you?! I don't care if you leave because you were never really here to begin with!"

At that exact moment, Midori wished she really _could_ leave. She wished she could leave her home, her job, the whole country, and just start over somewhere else, all by herself. But she was stuck – she couldn't just leave Suguha alone. To hell with Kimiko, miss perfection the second. Even if she wasn't particularly close to her daughter, she still cared for her.

"Be careful what you wish for, kid. It just might happen one day."

It was ultimately an empty threat, and she knew even as she said it that this would be obvious to the one hearing it. The teen had always been a scarily accurate lie detector even when she had almost nothing to go on.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Kimiko responded exactly as her aunt had expected. "I've got school tomorrow and you've got that _work_ of yours. It plays into your favor that neither of us like to be late for those. See ya."

She spit the word 'work' out like it was venom on her tongue, and then just as suddenly as the argument started, it stopped. Kimiko left to go back to the room she shared with her sister, and after a few moments of footsteps echoing through the hallways, all traces that she was ever there at all were gone.

Or, at the very least, all physical traces. The wounds she left on Midori's heart were still alive and almost literally kicking. Well, to be frank, it felt more like they were stabbing. But after so many nights ended on such a note, she had long since grown used to it.

The defeated woman turned around again and walked to the end of the foyer. Going to sleep with a heavy heart was something she couldn't do in the past, but by this point, it had become just as common as falling asleep without any fresh wounds.

As she walked to her bedroom, Midori's eyes, as a matter of course, were drawn to a picture frame on the wall of the living room. Inside the frame was a photo of her, her kids at ages three and four, and her ex-husband before he left her. As the passed it by, like every night she fought with Kimiko, she wished she could go back to that time, back before everything fell apart at the seams.

* * *

A minute after the last shout, Suguha heard the sound of footsteps approaching her room. She immediately closed her eyes and slowed her movements and breathing, trying to pretend to be asleep. If she could convince Kimiko that the fight didn't wake her up, that would make it so much easier on the older sibling.

The bedroom door opened as soon as she finished that thought. Initially, everything went just fine – the older teen closed the door behind her, not-so-quietly walked up to their bed, raised the covers and crawled under them. Suguha felt the mattress shift to accommodate the new weight on it, and just as she thought she was in the clear…

"I know you're awake."

Suguha opened her eyes and looked to the side, meeting her older sister's compassionate gaze with a guilty look. There went the 'pretend to be asleep' plan. Not like it ever worked in the first place – her big sis could always tell when she was faking, and today was no exception.

"How long did you know?" after being so quickly exposed, she really couldn't help but ask.

"Since my first look after opening the door. I woke you up, right? Sorry you had to hear me fighting with Mom," Kimiko said, her voice soft and gentle, completely unlike her shouting of only a minute earlier. "I know it's hard on you when I don't get along with her."

"I didn't hear anything specific." It was true – she hadn't heard anything, even at the height of the shouting. They had a really big house, old as it was. It was one of the things their grandpa left them when he died. Only people with downright ridiculous hearing would be able to make out words shouted in the foyer from any of the bedrooms.

"That's good. Normally I'd tell you anything, but you're better off not knowing the details of my fights with mom. Sorry."

From anyone else, Suguha would have heard this and naturally grown incredibly curious, quite possibly trying to listen in on the next fight she woke up to. But from her sister, the words were taken and trusted at face value – if the intelligent, brutally honest, straightforward Kimiko said she was better off not knowing, then chances are she was right.

"It's okay, don't apologize for keeping me happy," the younger sister responded, shaking her head in a resigned manner. "I know that's what you're trying to do here. If it were okay to tell me, you'd have done it already."

"Thanks, I needed that dose of sunshine. Now I can sleep easy," the older girl said, closing her eyes as she finished with a yawn.

Suguha really couldn't resist picking that particular comment to harp on. With a smile on her face, she asked, "So sunshine makes you sleep?"

"That combined with the hypnotic voices of my third and fifth period teachers, yes," came the playful response. Of course, it got followed up with something a little bit more serious. "Speaking of which, I'm going to need to go to sleep soon if I want to make lunch, let alone third period. And you have school in the morning, too. Let's call it a night here."

She knew her sister was just saying half of that for her benefit. Kimiko could operate very well with as little as four hours of sleep, but the younger sibling needed more than that. With the knowledge that she was saying it all for her benefit, she really couldn't do anything but agree.

"Okay. Good night, Sis."

"Sweet dreams, Sugu."

Before the little sibling could ask, the other teen's left arm wormed its way under her neck as her right fell onto her waist. Suguha shifted in bed so her back faced her sister, then closed her eyes, the fatigue of being awoken from her night's sleep finally catching up to her.

Somewhere in the back of her head, she recognized that sisters sleeping in the same bed at this age was not normal – that many would call it weird. But all things considered, she didn't mind that as a small price for being as close to Kimiko as she was.

Suguha's last thought before drifting off was that she'd gladly pay any price to keep things with her sister as they were.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Something you may want to know is that I'm going to be writing in every significant character's perspective** _ **but**_ **Kiriko's. Mainly because I want to try making a story where the Mary Sue character doesn't get any narration. It's kind of a challenge to myself.**

 **So hey, was this any good? Most of it was written while I was tired, and I didn't proofread, so I'm sure I let a few errors slip like usual. But I honestly think this chapter was fairly decent when it wasn't info dumping. Even so, I'm not really the judge of how good it is, so… let's see some reviews, people!**

 **Well, I'm about done. I have to go to bed soon if I want to be able to do literally anything after I awaken. I totally pushed myself into a bad position by staying up late to finish this. I have somewhere to be next weekend and I want to be awake for it. Hurrah for sleep disorders…**

 **See you next chapter!**


	2. II: Superwoman's Kryptonite

**Author's Note**

 **Honestly, considering I basically wrote the first chapter to get it out of my head, this one sort of surprised me. Especially because, as I said before, I don't like this pairing much. But I have to admit, Suguha's character was downright beautifully done (in my opinion she was one of the most well-written characters in the series during her spotlight arc), so giving her some love was probably an eventuality.**

 **As usual, I didn't proofread this. I also typed pretty much all of it in two sittings, with about two thirds of it being done in the two hours before these author notes were created. While I won't tell you not to point out mistakes you find (actually, on the contrary, do point the ones you find so I can fix them), I should warn you that they sort of come with the territory.**

 **Also, since I was already making this an AU, I decided to go full throttle and just change anything I felt like changing. As such, it really doesn't resemble canon much anymore. I'm gonna have to see about changing the summary a bit soon to reflect that…**

 **Also, for those wondering, no, Kiriko's family does** _ **not**_ **live in the same house as canon. I think I mentioned it in chapter one in the narration, but they live in the house that used to be their grandfather's. Since they only moved in recently, the kids also used to go to a different school until when they moved into the new house, which was about a year before the start of the story.**

 **Well, that's enough out of me. Go ahead and read. It should be at least as good as the first chapter, if not a little better because less info dumping.**

* * *

Even Though We're Sisters

Chapter Two: Superwoman's Kryptonite

* * *

 _"Okay. Good night, Sis."_

 _"Sweet dreams, Sugu."_

 _Before the little sibling could ask, the other teen's left arm wormed its way under her neck as her right fell onto her waist. Suguha shifted in bed so her back faced her sister, then closed her eyes, the fatigue of being awoken from her night's sleep finally catching up to her._

 _Somewhere in the back of her head, she recognized that sisters sleeping in the same bed at this age was not normal – that many would call it weird. But all things considered, she didn't mind that as a small price for being as close to Kimiko as she was._

 _Suguha's last thought before drifting off was that she'd gladly pay any price to keep things with her sister as they were._

* * *

Suguha awoke to a strong vibration coming from the underside of her pillow, just under her head. Her eyes fluttered open as she slowly became aware of the world around her. The sun was already up and radiant, so that meant it must have been a weekend – she normally set her alarm for around dawn on school days.

The younger sibling reached under the pillow with her left arm and grasped her phone, squeezing the lock button to get the alarm to stop. As she retracted her arm, phone in hand, she felt a pair of arms encircling her waist, so she knew her sister must have moved the lower arm in her sleep.

Fortunately, Kimiko was a very heavy sleeper in most of the standard ways. If she was out, one could vacuum in front of her or even shake her silly, and she wouldn't even stir. Suguha sat up in bed, and the arms around her slid down, but otherwise, her sister didn't move. Next, she swung her legs off the bed before breaking the hold on her by standing up. She turned around to face the sleeping girl, pulled the covers back up to her neck, and spoke as she straightened back up.

"I'll get you up soon, sis." The message was more directed at herself than her sibling, who obviously wouldn't hear it.

To reiterate, in most of the standard ways, Kimiko was a very heavy sleeper. Neither sound nor touch did anything to rouse her, no matter how intense. However, in one other key sense, she woke up with only the smallest of changes: her sense of smell. She could smell breakfast cooking from the complete opposite side of the house – which, Suguha supposed, she would have to anyway, considering the huge distance between the bedrooms and the kitchen.

With a plan for the morning meal already in mind, the younger sibling left her room and made straight for the kitchen.

* * *

"Breakfast smells different but good."

This assessment came out of nowhere, the closeness of the sound almost startling Suguha into bumping the skillet off the stove. Even though she narrowly missed that catastrophe, she still nearly jumped half a meter in shock. The voice came from right behind her, so close she could feel the breath on her neck.

The young cook turned around in a flash to glare daggers at her sister. "One of these days, you're going to give me a heart attack because you startled me! What'll you do then?"

"Obviously I'll save you. I am planning to be a doctor, after all." Such confidence, coming from anyone else, would seem like boasting. But she really did have the ability to become truly amazing at whatever she decided to do, so if she said she'd be a doctor, she'd become one of the best.

Kimiko definitely hadn't gotten prepared for the day yet, it seemed. Her lustrous, waist-length black hair, though not tangled as per her hair type, was still very messy, with at least some of the bangs sticking in every direction. She was also wearing the same black t-shirt and loose gray sweat pants as the night before. She always loved to dress in clothes that she could wear both to bed and outside. Though, as Suguha noticed upon closer inspection, she didn't have a bra on, either, so she probably didn't plan to go out in those clothes.

The bedhead only made the difference in height between them look that much more glaring. The older sibling was only one year older, but she was very tall, a little over a hundred seventy-two centimeters. By comparison, the younger sibling had a much more normal height, but that actually made her a little over half a head shorter.

Suguha turned around to focus on the skillet again, so as not to be caught staring. She picked up the skillet by the wooden handle and shook it a bit, flipping the contents over and revealing a beautifully perfect golden brown side. If the younger sibling were to name one thing she could do better than her sister, it would have to be cooking.

… Though, if she were being honest, one only had to have a mild talent for preparing food to be able to outdo Kimiko. She was just plain terrible at it, and no amount of teaching or supervising (save for just doing it for her) could rectify that. But the younger sibling, on the other hand, was an incredible chef in her own right, or so others kept telling her, nearly a goddess when compared to her sister.

All things considered, it was really quite fortunate that Super Woman's little sister happened to be proficient at the one thing that could be considered her Kryptonite.

"I decided to make something different today, so I went with pancakes," Suguha answered the unspoken question of why the meal smelled different than normal. "How many do you want? I've made two so far plus the one in the pan."

"Isn't that a little… fatty?"

"I'm not going to listen to that complaint from someone eighteen centimeters taller than me who is also eight kilos lighter," came the severe rebuttal. "You're too underweight to be making that remark."

"But you're the other extreme. You're overweight by traditional measurements," Kimiko retorted as if she hadn't just been totally dismissed. When she saw the deadly glare being sent her way, the fifteen-year-old quickly clarified her argument to avoid pain. "I-I mean, you still practice kendo, so you've got more muscle than normal. And, uh, your chest is bigger than mine, so…"

"… _What_?" Why the hell did she even have to bring that up?!

It seemed that even without asking the last question aloud, she was going to get an answer for it. "It may not be a big deal to you, but it's important to me! I'm older, but mine is smaller! And you actually exercise a lot, how does it stay so big with that kind of work out routine?! It's not fair, damn it!"

"It's a huge pain to have a big chest, your size is better!" Kimiko truly did have a better chest size. It was big enough to strongly appeal to men, but small enough to not cause major hassles when she did physical activities. Like the rest of her, her chest was damn near perfect… so much so that it was annoyingly bothersome.

Suguha turned around and grabbed the skillet and flipped the pancake again, finding that the second side was just as perfect as the first. She took the spatula from the counter to the right of the stove, then moved the pot over to the plate of already-cooked pancakes and used the utensil to work the piece of golden art onto it. No matter how intense the conversation got during meal preparation, she always had enough of her attention on the food to know exactly when to tend to it.

In that sense, she mused, she had another advantage over her big sister. Kimiko got insanely good at whatever she put the smallest amount of effort into, but she could only focus on doing one thing at a time. She simply wasn't wired to multitask effectively. However, that inability to split concentration, more often than not, worked to her advantage – using her incredibly intense and streamlined single-route focus, she could master anything she worked at very quickly… except for preparing food, of course.

"I'll ask again," the younger sister pressed, deciding it would be better to drop this particular subject of conversation if she wanted to keep her sanity. " _How many pancakes_ do you want?"

She heard a great sigh coming from behind her. "Two, please."

"Good. Now go set the table while you wait. Mom's at work already, so just set it for two."

"Yes, ma'am," came what sounded like a military-type response. If she were to turn around, Suguha was positive she'd see her big sister giving a mock salute. The younger sibling sighed internally herself at the thought as she grabbed and poured the batter for the fourth and final pancake.

* * *

This was one of the primary times that, all things considered, Suguha decided she was grateful that their mother's morning job didn't give her weekends off. She left for work before either of her children got up each day, leaving them majorly to their own devices. While essentially being alone had its fair share of difficulties (before Suguha started regularly making breakfast, her sister was an absolute nightmare to get up every morning), it was due to this distance that their days could be so peaceful.

One could argue that most of Kimiko's resentment towards their mother seemed to originate from how little she was around. But at the same time, they had been finding completely unrelated things to argue about since the older sister developed a personality of her own, which was actually before their mother became a workaholic. So if she were home more, the younger sibling theorized that the house would always be filled with shouting several times a day instead of just once every couple of nights.

This peace of separation was made most apparent in the mornings, especially at breakfast. When the older sibling had just woken up, and because nothing had happened to her yet, she had a much more positive outlook. Usually, this made her smile a lot more often than later in the day, after the ups and downs of life had worn on her.

But this particular day, she didn't seem to be smiling much. She looked pensive – not really negative, but it seemed like she didn't know what to do about something. Which, for her, was beyond unusual, considering she usually had an answer for almost every situation, every outcome, everything anyone ever said to her.

If Suguha were honest with herself, it made her more than a little curious. But right there to outweigh the concern by a full ton, she felt concerned more than anything else. For a while, she wondered how to bring it up and hopefully get her older sister to open up about whatever was troubling her. But then, after a few minutes of thinking about it, a new development occurred that really changed the flow of the battle, so to speak.

"I must really be out of it if you're making such a concerned face while staring at me," Kimiko assessed, shaking her head with a rueful smile. "I may as well ask you about it, just to get a second opinion. I sure as hell haven't dealt with this before, so it's not like mine is worth anything here."

Suguha nodded, grabbing her clear, half-empty glass of tea and beginning to sip from it. She tried not to let her relief at not having to be the one to start the conversation show on her face, but she feared some of it may have gotten through.

"If I'm not totally blunt, I'll just stutter about it forever, so here goes." Well, let it be said, she certainly did know herself well. "Is it weird for two girls to be together? I mean, romantically?"

As one might expect, Suguha's initial reaction was to sputter and spray the tea in her mouth all over her pancakes and shirt. The second reaction came before the first ended and lasted much longer – that of a furious, deep pink blush spreading across her face.

"Wha-what – where did this come from?!" Of all the things she expected to hear, this didn't even remotely resemble any of them…

"Right, that's gonna sound kinda scary taken out of context," the older sibling said, face surprisingly not tinged with red – or at least, not enough of it that it would be noticeable to untrained eyes. "I probably would have freaked out if you asked me, too. I don't have a crush on a girl, just to get that out of the way."

That specification changed the whole dynamic at play. Kimiko wouldn't have thought about it in the first place if the idea hadn't confronted her somehow. Which meant that if she wasn't the one who had a crush on a girl, then it was another girl she knew.

"Tell me the whole story." Really, after bringing it up and clarifying it to this extent, the older sister just _had_ to explain the rest. It would drive her crazy if she didn't figure out what happened to put miss perfect in this situation.

"If that's what you want, okay." This was the older teen's unique and kinder way of saying, 'you win, have it your way'. She normally reserved it solely for when they were arguing, but sometimes she'd say it when she felt extremely pressured, too. This must have been one of those times. "So you know how I play three VRMMOs, right? Well, I have different friends in every one of them, some of whom I've gotten close enough with to meet IRL."

"Go on."

"Well, in Gun Gale Online, one of my friends confessed to me. While that in itself is not unusual, this friend is a girl," Kimiko explained, dropping her fork and resting her head in her just-crossed hands. After a great sigh, she continued. "And one of the ones I know IRL. She goes to the middle school branch of our school, so whenever I go to get you so we can go home, there's a chance I could run into her. I think you may actually be in the same class as her, though I'm pretty sure she has no idea you're my sister. She has black hair with white ribbons and glasses, and she always seems to have a book on her."

"Sounds familiar," Suguha acknowledged, remembering a girl by that description who sat by the window in her classroom. "So what are you going to do about it?"

She couldn't quite understand what made her think so, but the younger sister felt that the answer she got would be especially significant somehow. As for exactly how or why she thought that, she couldn't even fathom either one.

"Well, this is the first time I've ever been confessed to by a girl, and she seemed super serious about it, too. I was understandably caught off guard. I had no idea what to say," the person heralded as perfect to outsiders revealed a rather crippling weakness. "So I hit the emergency exit button. I said I needed time to think and then logged out, then immediately logged into Sword Art Online, another VRMMO, to go get help figuring out to do from my best online friend, the info broker who has whiskers on her avatar. Only, well…"

"What went wrong?" Sugu asked, trying to cut right past the resistances she saw coming back up. "It's obvious it didn't go over well, but how so?"

"When I talked to her about it, she mistook my panic over the unknown for dislike of the concept." The fifteen-year-old freed one hand to put it over her forehead. "And it only got worse from there. I tried to explain my case, but it seemed like everything I said made her more upset. In the end, she shouted 'How would you react if _I_ was the one who confessed to you, huh?!' and stormed off."

"So she's in love with you, too? That's what it seems like to me."

"… Probably. So until this is resolved, I'm locked out of all three of my VRMMOs."

Suguha remembered the story of why her sister wouldn't touch the third at the moment. The confessions blocked out two of them, but apparently, in the last one ALfheim Online, she recently got into a big fight with her best male friend, one of the only men who had never shown any romantic interest in her. Since they had yet to resolve that, Kimiko had people to avoid in every VR game she played.

The younger sibling realized pretty quickly that this was like a godsend chance. The older teen didn't want to play any of her VR games. She had to take advantage of this rare opportunity while it lasted. There was only one thing to do.

"If you're out of games to play," she began, catching her big sis's attention right away with the wording. "I thought of something you could do for a while until at least one of them gets resolved."

"I'm listening."

Sugu took a deep breath. Now or never. She might not get another chance like this for over a year at least. She had to make full use of it. "Come watch me at kendo practice."

"… _What_?"

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **I was talking with one of my reviewers about this story a few days back, and they were all like "Kendo is something that would be mentioned offhandedly." I almost immediately laughed upon reading this because I, of course, had already planned for kendo to have a major role in the story for at least the beginning of it.**

 **In case some of you couldn't tell, this story isn't half as planned out as some of my other works tend to be pretty much from the start. As with most of my inexplicably popular fanfics (seriously, what is with going from zero to thirty followers with one opening chapter in two days?!), I'm totally winging it this time, only planning a few major things and otherwise just using a very vague outline as a base. I guess the 'write as you think of new things to include' strategy is really effective, because that's how a lot of my easily popular stuff has gone down – this story, Weapons with Hearts, SAO: Re:Designed, GGO SW, and Shoot to Thrill (and its sequel), just to name a few that started like this.**

 **So, I think this chapter was better than the last one in some areas, but worse in others. It did less obvious info dumping, but it also had a lot less setting description and a lot higher of a 'dialogue to narration' ratio. Which I suppose is sort of my usual style, but I still don't really like it that much. What do you guys think? Good read or not?**

 **Well, it's about time for me to sign off for now. I have to get to bed a little earlier so I can wake up by the hotel's checkout time tomorrow. I visited with family this weekend, but their house couldn't fit us, so we had to get a hotel room. Now I have to somehow get up at two in the afternoon (already they're giving us extra time and it's still not late enough dammit!) so that my mother, the driver, can make it to some office mate's wedding by four. I guess I'll sleep some more in the car…**

 **See you next chapter!**


	3. III: Living Legend

**Author's Note**

 **I bet you guys thought this story was done, didn't you? After all, I haven't touched it in like two weeks, and in that time I've published a bunch of other stuff. Well, it's a bit short, but here's the new chapter!**

 **It has come to my attention that I made two contradictory things in chapters one and two. In chapter one I had Kiriko imply the next day was a school day, but then in chapter two I wrote the morning as a Saturday, which would mean no school. Now, there are a couple ways to deal with this. One, you can just pretend I didn't totally screw up and just keep reading. Or two, you can assume that more than a single night's sleep's time passed between chapter one and chapter two. For continuity's sake I'm going with the latter, but for readers, the choice is yours.**

 **Other than that, I don't have much to say, except… prepare for a chapter that's narrated by a non-Kirigaya character! This one is mostly told from the perspective of SAO Lost Song's reigning DPS queen!**

* * *

Even Though We're Sisters

Chapter Three: Living Legend

* * *

 _Suguha remembered the story of why her sister wouldn't touch the third at the moment. The confessions blocked out two of them, but apparently, in the last one ALfheim Online, she recently got into a big fight with her best male friend, one of the only men who had never shown any romantic interest in her. Since they had yet to resolve that, Kimiko had people to avoid in every VR game she played._

 _The younger sibling realized pretty quickly that this was like a godsend chance. The older teen didn't want to play any of her VR games. She had to take advantage of this rare opportunity while it lasted. There was only one thing to do._

 _"If you're out of games to play," she began, catching her big sis's attention right away with the wording. "I thought of something you could do for a while until at least one of them gets resolved."_

 _"I'm listening."_

 _Sugu took a deep breath. Now or never. She might not get another chance like this for over a year at least. She had to make full use of it. "Come watch me at kendo practice."_

 _"…_ What _?"_

* * *

That one word said about three times as much as her measured expression. She was more than a little caught off guard by the idea, but her voice didn't sound very opposed to it. That was good – Suguha could work with surprise, but if her sis was fundamentally opposed, nothing good would come of forcing her into doing it.

"I won't make you compete," the younger sister tackled what she assumed was the beauty's biggest fear. "You just have to watch my matches. I won't make you watch anyone else's."

This wasn't exactly a lie. Suguha herself wouldn't make her big sister compete – she knew that Kimiko had gone through some downright traumatic experiences in their last dojo at the hands of their grandfather. That wasn't to say, however, that she didn't have her own secret intentions here. There was a bit more to this request than meets the eye, though she wouldn't say that aloud.

"I dunno…"

It was working! Her hesitance to the idea was beginning to crumble, it was obvious from her tone and face. Sugu would only have to push a little more and she'd get just what she wanted!

"Is it wrong to want to hear my big sis congratulate me on a well-fought match?" she asked, really laying her tone thick with emotion. "To hear her clap for me?"

For a few seconds, the room went dead silent. Nobody said or did anything. Suguha grew more and more nervous that she pushed a little too much, and that the whole thing would backfire. Then, finally, her big sis spoke, a gentle smile finding its way onto her face.

"If that's what my sister wants."

* * *

From pretty much the moment Suguha introduced her sister to the kendo club, long-time member Karatachi Nijika had a strange feeling about her. She wouldn't necessarily call it bad, but at the same time, she wouldn't call it good, either. It was just there.

She couldn't help but feel that she knew this person.

The place she knew this girl from, she couldn't tell anybody without outing her own secrets. After all, she had no intention of her club finding out that a good portion of her practice was done inside the VRMMO, ALfheim Online. This, of course, was also how she knew Kirigaya Kimiko – or, as she went by in-game, Kiriko.

In the VR community, just about everyone knew the name Kiriko. She was more famous than she'd ever realize, having claimed the spot of top player in all of the big three VRMMO games using the same name and avatar. In Gun Gale Online, she won the Bullet of Bullets tournament by a landslide after only having played it for a little over a week. In Sword Art Online, the first VRMMO, she was known as the strongest player on the dueling circuit in both the beta and the retail release, though this game didn't have tournaments to decide for certain. In ALfheim Online, she won the Strongest Swordsman tournament's final round by beating the last champion within ten seconds of the start of the match.

She was, to say the least, a living legend. And Suguha's sister looked exactly like her avatar. To call her avatars in the games flawless recreations of her apparent real-life body wouldn't do them justice.

Of course, Nijika didn't come to the conclusion that they were the same person based on looks alone. The names also contributed here. If one took the first half of Kirigaya and combined it with the last syllable of Kimiko, they would get the name Kiriko. And she remembered the legendary top player telling her more than once that she was terrible at naming things, so combining her real names to come up with her avatar's name made sense.

The last piece of evidence the kendo club member had pertained to how Suguha introduced her sister, as well as how she and Kiriko first met in ALO. Sugu said that Kimiko had been in their last school's kendo club. This actually lined up perfectly with what the top player said the first time she talked to Nijika, or, as she went by in-game, Rain.

At the time, she had been training for kendo by herself. She had been absorbed in it enough that she didn't hear the other girl approach her. Then, the black-haired girl startled her by correctly guessing that she was practicing a kendo style. After getting over her initial shock, Nijika had wondered why the game's strongest player would talk to her, a nobody who'd never even been in an in-game tournament before.

Kiriko offered to be a sparring partner to help her train. She said that she hadn't done kendo since she moved about three months back, but that she'd probably still be able to provide helpful battle practice. That was how they became friends.

Three months prior to when they met in-game would place the timing of Kiriko's supposed move (and thus, when she stopped kendo) more or less right before Suguha transferred into their school and joined the club. That lined up too perfectly to be a coincidence, especially considering everything else that pointed to the same conclusion.

Of course, she'd have no way of recognizing Nijika as the ALO player, Rain. In-game, her hair was a fiery red, and she was a fair bit taller. But in real life, she had dull yet light brown hair that was so pale it almost appeared gray. But for some reason, even though she should have had no reason to single her out, Kimiko locked eyes with her for a full four seconds from clear across the room before making her way to the bleachers.

At the same time, the club captain decided to start a match between Suguha and another member that the light-haired girl didn't know very well. As the two began to dress themselves in their sparring gear, Kimiko watched intently, her expression unreadable.

Nijika decided to stop practicing and take a breather until Sugu's match was over. After setting her shinai down by the wall, she walked over to the bleachers and walked up to the back row before sitting. Her eyes almost immediately drifted to Kimiko, who sat a few rows in front of her.

The kendo club member realized rather belatedly that they were the only two sitting in the stands. It was a Saturday morning, so not all of the club members were there, and most of the ones who were present were still standing, either practicing, sparring or just standing off in their own cliques talking.

Her gaze fell back to the VR community's goddess as a matter of course. Why exactly did she come here? From what she had said in-game, she had some very valid reasons for quitting kendo like she did and not looking back. So what exactly made her come sit in on the club's weekend practice, even if it was just to watch?

"You know, if you're going to be so obvious about staring at me," came a smooth, low voice that didn't betray any strong emotions. "You may as well just come sit next to me, Rain. I wouldn't mind the company since you're someone I know."

Nijika was so shocked at being found out so easily that she couldn't even speak. So instead, she did as instructed and got up, moving down a few rows and sitting right next to her friend. From this angle and distance, she saw Kimiko in a lot more detail. The black-haired beauty rested her head in her right hand, looking on at the preparation for the upcoming fight with eyes that showed only a tiny fraction of her apparent inner pain. Her left hand, closed into a fist on her lap, was trembling very slightly.

The pale-haired girl wanted to ask a lot of questions at once. Why she came here, how she recognized her so easily even if they were friends, and many other things. But she knew she had to do them one at a time, so she started with…

"How did you know it was me?" this was probably the least invasive question, and thus the best opening one.

"Your hairstyle and the fact that you've been staring at me from the moment I arrived."

She didn't think of that one. It was true, she did in fact have the same hairstyle both in-game and IRL. But… had she really been staring that much? She hadn't realized she was that obvious about it.

Time for the next question. It was slightly more personal, but they were friends. She could at least ask. "You okay? Your hand is shaking, and your eyes betray your emotions, as usual. It must be a bit traumatic for you to come here."

"To be honest, I'm a lot more shaken up inside than I probably look. I'm trying really hard not to relive the past in my head right now," came an expectedly straightforward response. Her left hand clenched tighter as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "But having someone to talk to about it makes it a bit more bearable, so thanks."

As Kiriko, the girl next to Nijika had told her a few things about her past in kendo. Her grandfather had been obsessed with her amazing talent in the sport, and as such, had put her through absolute hell in the family dojo until the day he died. No matter how much or how fast she improved, it was never enough – he always expected more. Even though she was a prodigy, and even though she could beat him in a match, because she never hit her limit, he kept training her harder and harder, eventually crossing the line into abuse.

And then he died of a heart attack. Just like that, everything that tied her to kendo disappeared in an instant. As the family moved into the deceased grandfather's house (he apparently left it to them in his will), she dropped it like a bad habit when she started at this school.

"No problem," Nijika replied, shaking her head as if to say the thanks wasn't necessary. Then her lips curled upward into a smile as an idea sprung up on her. "But if you want to thank me, call me by my real name IRL. It's Karatachi Nijika."

"I'll just call you Nijika."

By this point, Suguha and her opponent were both fully equipped with their gear and holding their shinai. The match was about to start. Just as one of the refs shouted to begin and they started circling each other, the pale-haired spectator asked her friend another question.

"Hey. Why haven't you been on ALO for a while?" Really, it had been a full week since she last logged on. She was avoiding something… or someone.

Suguha launched a counterattack to her opponent's wrist-piece right after the end of this line. It resulted in a clean enough hit for the judges to unanimously declare that she got a point. Not ten seconds in and she was a single point away from winning. They backed off to begin the cycle again.

As Sugu's opponent made the first strike and got effortlessly blocked, Kimiko gave a great sigh. "You're gonna think it's dumb."

"Let me hear the story before assuming how I'll react to it," Nijika countered with a deadpan expression.

The battle started up again, but this time, Kimiko's sister went on the offensive first. Her attacks were just barely blocked, even though, as both spectators could plainly see, she wasn't giving it her all. If anything, she was holding back a fair amount. She wasn't the club's ace for nothing.

"All right, but you asked for it," the black-haired beauty prefaced. "So you know that Salamander who uses a katana, Klein, right? I'm pretty sure I introduced you two at some point. We sort of… got into a huge fight over, of all things, picking up chicks."

"Come again?" Of all the things the pale-haired girl expected to hear, this didn't even cross her mind.

By this point, Suguha's assault had forced her foe to the very edge of the pre-defined battle zone. The judges called for the confrontation to cease, and they both disengaged before walking back to the center of the metaphorical ring.

"You heard me. He got mad because, according to him, I'm better at getting girls to fall for me than he is."

She'd never outright say it, but Nijika knew them both well enough to acknowledge that Klein was right about that. She knew of the existence of more than one female-only Kiriko fan club, with multiple members of each seeming to be head over heels for the top player of the VR community.

Hell, she herself had feelings kind of like that for the girl next to her. But all things considered, she was content with the way things already were. So she didn't have plans to confess anytime soon.

"He's right, you know," the pale-haired girl said, smiling somewhat mischievously. "You don't mean to tell me you don't know about your fan clubs?"

"I get what he was saying now, but I didn't then," Kimiko replied, sighing quietly before she paused, suddenly looking at her friend with wide eyes. "Wait a damn minute here. I have fan clubs?"

"The winner is Kirigaya Suguha!"

"You missed your sister's final blow," Nijika said, her smile widening just a little. "I hope she won't be mad at you for not having all your attention on her match."

"Sis, get down here!"

Apparently, said sister just had the worst luck that day.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Yet another chapter released with no editing done to it. As usual, feel free to point out any mistakes you find in a review so I can fix them!**

 **So, how about that? I used a character that's exclusive to Lost Song for the narrative perspective. I frigging love Rain… I mean, she's a redhead, she's a dual-wielder, and she's got the highest DPS in the entire game with her attack buff and OSS. Speaking of that OSS, for those of you who have seen it in action, does it remind you of Gilgamesh from Fate/Zero or what? I swear to god that skill is just a ripoff of Gilgamesh launching weapons from his vault, except they're blue instead of gold.**

 **My character rants aside, what do you think? Good chapter or bad? Obviously it was short, but if that's your primary complaint… I will be very disappointed. I mean, there's just a whole lot more stuff to nitpick about, like the lack of setting description and the lingering presence of info dumping to build the world. And that's just what I thought of off the top of my head.**

 **Well, I'm about done for now. I gotta go to bed soon. I'm doing a sleep study thing this time, but it's the "do it at home" version. They're checking for sleep apnea or something… so I gotta hook myself up to the monitoring device and hope I can actually fall asleep with all that shit on me. What fun, right? I already need a sleep aid to pass out when I _don't_ have fricking tubes inserted into my nose. How the hell to they expect me to fall asleep _with_ that crap _plus_ a heavy box strapped to my chest?**

 **Wish me luck with that and see you next time!**


End file.
